Organizing in NY’s District 1
June 2, 2009
After a bout of morning thunderstorms, today turned into another beautiful day here in District 1. Karl and I spent the morning and early afternoon processing letters of support from local businesses, following up with several grasstop and grassroots contacts, catching up on emails, and planning our afternoon canvassing. A little after 12:30pm we packed up at the local Southampton public library, where we work out of because of the free wireless internet, and headed to Sag Harbor. 
In Sag Harbor we immediately hit the streets, going business to business and talking to owners about marriage equality. In explaining to the business community that the marriage equality bill could potentially positively impact the local economy, we are frequently met with the reply, "Well, yeah, but it's also the right thing to do!" We smile and agree with them. In a picture that Karl snapped of me right after conversing with the owner, you can see one of the many businesses that agreed to write a personal letter to the state senator today. The owner, a straight ally, commented on how so many of his clients mentioned having to go to Connecticut and Massachusetts to get married, and how he'd like to see them be able to stay in their home towns and marry. Well, Mr. Supportive Businessman, we're working on fixing that! 
After several hours of talking to business leaders and distributing informational flyers to passersby, we got back in our car (a handsome PT Cruiser that we've affectionately nick-named "Tony"), stopped by the local post office to mail our letters, and scouted some locations in Bridgehampton. Tomorrow we're going to hit up the Western portion of District 1 to show that support for marriage equality runs deep throughout the area. Keep an eye out for more updates from Eastern Long Island!
